La Barca: Rethinking Temporary Structures and Sensory Experiences in Nature
La Barca: An Unexpected Architectural Experience in the Heart of Nature
Imagine walking through the mountains of Italy, when suddenly a massive wooden structure blocks your path. But as you approach, you realize it is not just a piece of wood—it is an upturned boat, transformed into a unique architectural structure. This is the La Barca project, a wooden pavilion that recently won an award at the Festival di Microarchitettura 2025, and serves as an example of the power of commitment to a single, peculiar idea.
Location and Design
The pavilion was designed by Marina Poli, Clément Moulinier, and Philippe Pommel, and was placed along a trail in the Biobico area. The structure stands like a boat stranded away from its natural course, reflecting the contrast between the natural environment and the unusual architecture. Visitors are free to walk around it, but a narrow gap cutting through the middle of the boat forces direct interaction, creating a unique sensory experience.
Construction Elements and Visitor Experience
Once inside the boat, the immersive experience is complete:
- Curved wooden ribs overhead provide a sense of embrace.
- The keel, or central structure, organizes the floorboards in a way that mimics real boats.
- A skylight in the roof allows daylight to flow in, adding a natural and dynamic dimension to the interior space.
What sets La Barca apart is the use of actual boat-building techniques, not just forms that suggest a boat, making the experience more authentic and unique in the context of modern building materials and construction methods.
Sandwich Structure and Lightweight Design
The wooden ribs were designed in a sandwich structure, cut from ordinary planks, giving the pavilion enough lightness to be assembled temporarily, while also providing the strength to withstand weather conditions and support visitors climbing on it. Indeed, people freely climb this pavilion, highlighting the success of the design in balancing safety with temporary flexibility.
Structural Details and Balance
The pavilion contains six small aisles that divide the inner path, while the wooden walls curve to form half-structures at each end. Four local stones were added as internal balancing weights, and additional stones stabilize the front of the pavilion. These elements are not mere decoration—they form the structural and conceptual glue that maintains the continuity of the maritime metaphor in the design, demonstrating key principles of construction.
Versatility and Personal Experience
What stands out in La Barca is its refusal to be a single-purpose object. Some visitors see it as a place for quiet contemplation, while others treat it as a playful apparatus, and some use it as an abstract sculpture for photography. This multiplicity of interpretations was intentional by the architects, who designed the pavilion to be flexible enough to carry different meanings depending on each person’s perspective, aligning with modern approaches in design and architecture competitions.
Simplicity Over Complexity: Minimalism That Makes an Impact
In recent years, we have seen many temporary pavilions, especially at the Osaka Expo, that heavily rely on complex parametric design or CNC fabrication to justify their existence. In contrast, La Barca goes in the opposite direction, using traditional joinery and simple timber, yet leaves a stronger impression because it is fully committed to a single idea: an upturned boat in the mountains blocking a hiking path.
This contrast between the absurd, the familiar, and the strange makes visitors stop in their tracks, feel closeness and comfort, and at the same time remain affected by the installation even after taking several turns away.
Testing the Value of Temporary Installations
The true test of any festival installation lies in its ability to remain in the visitor’s memory after it has disappeared from the site. Most of these installations do not deserve the disruption they cause to the landscape; people take photos for a single season, and then the structures are dismantled and forgotten.
La Barca, however, is different. It leverages the tension of placing something “wrong” in the right place, leaving a lasting impression. The key idea here is that carefully orchestrated visual provocation can be a powerful tool for engagement, rather than just a temporary spectacle that grabs attention for a short time, contributing to architectural research on visitor experience and interaction.
The intricate timber assembly of La Barca creates a rhythmic pattern of light and shadow, emphasizing the ephemeral nature of the structure.
✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight
While La Barca offers a unique sensory experience and demonstrates the ability to integrate a maritime metaphor into a temporary architectural installation, it remains important to consider some practical and applied aspects. On the positive side, the pavilion shows flexibility in interacting with visitors, providing a sensory experience different from traditional natural trails.
However, the intense focus on a single concept may limit the practical functions of the space, as the actual use of the project relies more on individual experimentation than on a fully integrated architectural path. Moreover, the temporary and lightweight design, while efficient for rapid assembly, raises questions about long-term sustainability and maintenance, especially in fluctuating natural environments.
Additionally, the project poses an important architectural question: how can sensory engagement and artistic ambiguity be balanced with more defined functions and practical usage in temporary spaces? Future architects can draw valuable insights from this experience to understand the limits of temporary innovation in nature, while ensuring that better safety and sustainability measures are incorporated if similar projects are intended for the long term.
